


Only time will tell the story (of the glory of true love)

by abreathaway (silverraindrop)



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:33:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27546886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverraindrop/pseuds/abreathaway
Summary: "And I'm setting you up on a date, you could stand to get laid." Her mother is right, but that doesn't make it any less shocking, or hurtful. And honestly nothing sounds worse than being set up at her age by her mother."I really don't need that Mom." She protests, hoping she's believable. Like the crazy person she knows she is, she makes the split second decision to lie. "I've kinda been seeing someone, actually." Michelle you are an idiot.
Relationships: Michelle Blake/Owen Strand
Comments: 3
Kudos: 28





	Only time will tell the story (of the glory of true love)

**Author's Note:**

> Michelle panics when her mom suggest setting her up on a date when they're looking through the photos after the tornado. 
> 
> Also I know in the show Owen keeps drinking for a lot longer than this.

"And I'm setting you up on a date, you could stand to get laid." Her mother is right, but that doesn't make it any less shocking, or hurtful. And honestly nothing sounds worse than being set up at her age by her mother.

"I really don't need that Mom." She protests, hoping she's believable. Like the crazy person she knows she is, she makes the split second decision to lie. "I've kinda been seeing someone, actually."  _ Michelle you are an idiot. _

"Really?"  _ Thanks for the tone of shock mother.  _ "Since when?" 

She starts grasping for thoughts, hoping she won't have to ever remember the details. "Um, not very long, it's really early days Momma." In high school, she had worked her ass off for auditions for plays, and never actually gone to a single one, but she knows that she can give a decent performance if she has to. So she dips her head, thanking God she flushes when she's nervous. 

"Who is this man?" Crap. Crap. Crap.

"Just uh...someone from work." She doesn't really do much else, so it's the only thing that would make any sense, even if her mother wouldn't be too happy about it.

"After what happened last time?" Yeah, Billy hadn't been her finest moment, not that anyone but her mom and Carlos had any idea how much. She can't even remember anymore, what screwed her up worse. Iris or Billy. 

"It's not like that Momma." It's not like anything, at all. 

"Well forgive me if I'm worried about it." She can understand that, and suddenly feels incredibly guilty for lying about this. "You'll have to bring him for dinner. I want to see what he's like for myself." Crap. Crappity crap.  _ Crap. _

"Momma, we've only been seeing eachother a few weeks, it's way too early for that."  _ Wouldn't want to scare off a fictional boyfriend. _

"It's never to early for that." Her mom argues, going back scanning photos. "Does he know? About what happened last time?" 

Michelle stays silent, trying to figure out what she would say to this fictional man of hers. "Not everything." She settles on. Her mother wouldn't approve of her lying.  _ You're an idiot Michelle.  _

"If he knows anything then I'm sure he'd understand. You said you're off Saturday night?"

"Yeah."  _ Crap. _

_ Xxxx _

When she gets to work she finds herself scanning the crew, trying to pick which poor man to subject to her mother. There is only one logical option, only one guy in the 126 she thinks might do this for her.

"Captain Blake? What can I do for you?" Owen looks up from his laptop when he catches her hovering in the doorway. 

"Before I start I wanna say that I am so sorry to ask." Her neck is burning, and she can only hope Owen can't tell how red she is going. He nods at her to continue. "I need you to come to my mother's for dinner and pretend to be my fake boyfriend." She blurts the whole thing out, and starts to walk away when he starts to chuckle.

"Hey no Michelle, come back!" He calls, and she has to physically swallow her embarrassment in order to face him. "Why?" He's still laughing a little, and she would love nothing more than to melt into the ground. 

"She wanted to set me up with some...I dunno, from her yoga class, or her cooking class, or whatever." He won't stop freaking laughing and if she had a little bit of dignity left she'd probably beat the crap out of him. "So I panicked? I guess? And said I was seeing someone. And she wants to meet him. And you're the only person I could think of." 

"You panicked?" She nods. "And lied to your mother?" She nods. "That you are in a serious relationship?" 

"Not serious." She explains. "My mother is just very protective." He sends her a look that screams  _ 'Michelle you're in your 40's she's gotta back off.'  _ "Last time I dated it was really bad." She explains. "Like really bad." And the look is gone. 

"When's dinner?"

Xxxx

She flops onto the couch when Carlos lets her into his apartment later. "I need a drink." He nods silently, leaving and returning a moment later with two beers. "I did a really stupid thing." She buries her face into her hand. 

"Are we talking I shouldn't hear about it cos I'm a police officer stupid? Or just normal person stupid." He sits next to her, opening a beer and handing it to her. 

"I lied to mom and now Owen Strand has to be my fake boyfriend for dinner." She takes a long swig from her bottle.

"Okay wow. That's really stupid Chica." He laughs. "How did that happen?"

"She was gonna set me up, and I panicked." Another swig. "Told her I was seeing someone and she insisted on meeting him."

"Why did you pretend it was serious?" He asks, as if that was an obvious mistake that only a rookie would make. Like she should have more experience with fake boyfriends.

"I didn't. You know her." 

"Ah yes, ever protective Momma Blake." Theresa Blake has treated Carlos like the son she never had since he and Iris were in high school. 

"Oh god." She groans out. "My fake boyfriend is your sorta real boyfriend's dad." It had just occurred to her how weird this is. 

"Aw you're like my sorta fake step-mother-in-law!" He laughs. "Mama." He pulls her in for a dramatic bear-hug. 

She smacks his arm in retaliation. "Shut up!"

"So does Captain Strand have any idea what he's getting into?" She knows there is another question that he isn't asking.  _ Does he know what happened? _

"Not really." She sighs. "I'll have to fill him in before Saturday."

Xxxx

It takes her till Saturday morning to gather the guts to talk to Owen about dinner. She arrives on his doorstep at 11 a.m. and is greeted by a frankly awful looking Owen Stand.

"Michelle?" He stutters, clinging to the door frame. "What's up?" 

"I thought maybe we should go over our game plan for tonight?" She offers, guilt stirring again in her stomach. "But if you're sick we can cancel. That's good actually, I'll just tell mom you're not feeling well." She starts to turn before he stops her.

"I'll be okay by dinner time, come on in." He widens the door, letting her squeeze past him. He offers her coffee, and slips into the kitchen, returning a few minutes later with a coffee for her and a huge glass of water for him. 

"Are you sure you're okay to do this Owen? It's a lot to ask, especially if you're sick." He assures her he's fine, and taking a long sip of water, asks what she'd already told her mother. "Um, we've been together a few weeks and we work together, that's kind of it." He nods, cogs turning in his head. "And I told her you knew about my last…" she struggles over the word, trying to find something that doesn't make her stomach turn. "Boyfriend, I guess."

"More than you've already said?" There is a  _ lot  _ more to the story than she'd told him, actually what she'd said didn't even begin to cover the story.

"She's just worried, because the last guy I dated...wasn't very good to me." She mumbles. "And I kind of just let it happen." She can feel her throat start to tighten. "I was blaming myself for my sister going missing, and I let him blame me for everything else too. Let him call me crazy." She fumbles with her fingers, not daring to look at Owen. "Which I kind of am, just not the way he said I was." The pity she knows is in Owen's eyes burns into her. "It was never… it wasn't violent," she explains. "It was just...bad. and then he got sick, and he blamed me for that too, and it… got worse I guess." She wants to be sick, wants to be sick all over Owen's sleek furniture. "Which is why she wants to meet you, cos she's worried." She glances up at him, immediately regretting it when she sees the way he is looking at her, so she keeps talking to avoid hearing his reaction. "We worked together, me and the last guy, which didn't help my fake boyfriend win my mother's trust." She forces a laugh. Owen doesn't reciprocate. 

"Michelle…" he sighs, and she screws her eyes shut. "I'm sorry." She shakes her head, assuring him that it's okay. "So your mother wants to make sure I'm not a controlling asshole?" She chuckles and nods. "Okay." 

"Crap." She giggles weakly. "You're older than me." He takes mock offense at her observation, causing her to laugh further. "So was he." She explains. "I'm afraid I've forced an uphill battle onto you Captain Strand."

"What am I? A better copy of your ex-boyfriend? Him being asshole is literally the only thing we don't have in common." She chuckles out another apology. "I should probably tell you that I have lung cancer." The watery humour leaves her completely. "I'm in treatment, I'm gonna be fine. But you should probably know, if we're supposed to be dating."

"You?" She trails off. "You never said anything? You've been working?" It makes sense now, why he looked so unwell when he answered the door. "You were at treatment this morning?" He nods silently. "I'm sorry." 

She wishes she could go back in time and erase her stupid lie that got them here. 

"It probably won't come up at dinner, but if it does I didn't want you to not know. Wouldn't go down too well with your mother." He says it like it's no big deal. "So we've been dating a few weeks?"

He changes the subject and together they concoct a history of their fake relationship. "We should go for lunch." He suggests later. "Pretend it's a date, practice." She suspects that he threw up his breakfast earlier, and is just thinking of a way to suggest that they eat while they plan. 

"Okay." She agrees. "I don't think people practice this sort of thing though."

"Michelle, people don't get them into situations like this." He's teasing her, and under normal circumstances, if she wasn't so tense, she'd probably smack his arm. But that seems awfully familiar now. Or maybe she should.  _ Practice. _

TK walks through the front door just as they are about to leave, eyeing them suspiciously as he greets them. "We're going for lunch," Owen explains. "See ya later!"

Even though it was his idea to get lunch, Owen is still very cautious with his food. "You're lucky my mom has been taking cooking lessons, she's nowhere near as awful as she used to be." If she was making this Owen go to dinner with her pre-cooking lesson mother for no reason she'd feel even worse. "By the way, I can't cook, at all, so that's something you should know about me."

"Noted." He spears his salad, finally deciding to finally eat. "I can cook. But I don't. Well nearly never. Not a lot of time." 

They exchange details that they feel people would know about them if they were dating. "The scar on my thigh is not from the job, it's actually from a horse riding accident when I was a teenager." She starts to laugh. I fell off my horse against a barbed wire fence, and got my leg scratched up really bad cos I was wearing shorts." She rolls her eyes at herself. "Iris was better than me at everything she did. And she teased me about falling off the horse constantly. Any time I dated I tried to pretend I got it somewhere else, but she'd always tell them the truth." 

"I got drunk and fell off a wall in my 20s, ended up slicing my shoulder, really deep, on a spike on the ground." He starts. "Told my second wife I got it at work, pulling someone out of a collapsed building."

"Did she ever find out?"

"You're the first person I've told. Even TK doesn't know, I swore his mom to secrecy."

She giggles. "I guess it's not the best example to set your kid." He nods in agreement while they both sip their water. "I do have cooler scars, if you call getting stabbed by a junkie cool. I call it cool, stitched it up myself." 

"Maybe that's why you have a scar." He grins at her.

Xxxx

She drops him home, telling him she'd pick him up at six thirty. When she arrives home, Carlos is sitting on her doorstep. "How was your boyfriend?" He calls when she gets out of the jeep. 

"I think we got a pretty good story, hopefully mom doesn't pick it apart." She unlocks the door, letting Carlos follow her. "He's taking this pretty seriously actually."

"Yeah...the  _ pretend  _ boyfriend thing." He says it like there's more to it and she has to stop in the hallway to stare at him questioningly. "According to TK you two looked  _ cosy  _ before your  _ date." Did they? _

"It was lunch Carlos, we were hungry, and we still needed to talk."  _ Even if it was a 'practice date'.  _ "Gotta make it believable, I don't need mom knowing I lied to her."

"Wouldn't it be easier to actually date the guy? It's not like you don't want to."  _ What?  _ "Don't pretend Michelle, I know you. I can read you like a book."

"I have literally never thought about dating Owen Strand." She assures him.

"Dating him maybe not. Other less official and far dirtier things? Yes you have and don't deny it." He stretches himself over her sofa, as though she's not half a second away from kicking him out.

"This is your potential future father in-law we're talking about here Carlos." She warns, hoping it will gross him out enough to stop.

"And your fake boyfriend, don't get all blushing virgin on me if you want this to be believable Chica." 

"Now I want to date him just to make your life miserable." The child in her wants to stick out her tongue in a huff.

"Like a true mother-in-law." 

There is no point in trying to pretend Carlos isn't right. "He knows way too much embarrassing stuff about me now. I told him about the horse."

"Chica this is Texas, literally everyone has fallen off a horse at some point, if anything it makes you the down to earth country guy in the hallmark movie, and he's the busy city girl who's forgotten the meaning of Christmas." 

"I don't think dinner with my mother is gonna help him find the meaning of Christmas Carlos."

"Chica I know you've seen these movies. I know that you know that this is  _ exactly  _ what helps him find the meaning of Christmas. And I know you know that fake dating always leads to real dating."

"In  _ movies  _ Carlos."

Xxx

He insists on helping her get ready. "Carlos it's dinner with mom, I think I can dress for dinner with mom."

"Yes it's dinner with mom. Dinner with mom and sexy fire Captain who has to be madly in love with you. We gotta make him  _ actually  _ in love with you." He's far too enthusiastic about trying to set them up, and Michelle can't believe she has to remind him that they can't trick a man into wanting her. "Maybe so, but we can make him realise that he already does."

"No he doesn't Carlos."

"TK seemed pretty convinced that he does."

She drops the shoes she's holding, and with them a stream of curses as one lands head-first on her toe. Carlos just bursts into laughter. 

Xxx

She thinks her final look, which took much longer than she would ever admit, and if Carlos ever let it slip she would murder him with her bare hands, is just right. She hopes that her mother doesn't think she's overdone it. Because knowing her mother, she'd say so, and wouldn't that just be the most humiliating experience of her life.

Owen looks effortlessly and somewhat ruggedly handsome. Which means that Michelle knows that he also spent an unusual amount of time on his appearance. "You know normally the meet her mother thing is done at a restaurant. It's actually really difficult to get the right balance when it's not." He starts down the steps beside her. "I was trying for way too long to get the whole 'please like me and let me date your daughter' and 'this is an intimate home dinner with my girlfriend's family". If she was less nervous she would probably make fun of his obsession with his appearance. But she's currently sure that if she did she would probably throw up all the butterflies in her stomach.

"You look great Owen." She decides on. When they settle back into her Jeep she turns to face him. "Thank you so much for doing this Owen." She almost reaches for his hand, but decides against it at the last moment. 

"What kind of a friend would I be if I didn't." He pats her thigh. "Besides, why wouldn't I? Free food, good company, and I get to pretend I have a life outside work."

"What a pair of workaholics we make huh?" She starts the Jeep up. 

"Perfect couple." He chuckles, and her chest shudders. 

It's not a long drive to her mother's, and when she pulls into the driveway she isn't ready for it at all. She lets out a long shuddering sigh as she stares at the house. "Come on." Owen takes her hand. "It'll be fine." He turns around to grab the flowers resting in the backseat. "Let's do this." He is way too confident, and her mother is gonna tear him to shreds. 

"Let's do this," she mumbles, opening her door. 

He takes her hand firmly in his as he walks towards the porch, taking the steps at a sort of excited bound before stopping surprisingly suddenly at the door. With his hand half raised to the doorbell he looks at her, eyes wide. "I can't do this." Oh no.  _ Oh no.  _

"Owen." She whispers, practically growling at him. They did not come this far for him to back out on the literal  _ doorstep. _ "You promised."

"She's gonna hate me!" He panics. "I've been divorced twice. Moms don't like that. I'm older than you. Moms do not like  _ that  _ at all."  _ Oh my freaking God. _

"Owen, seriously?" She steps towards him, almost nose to nose. "It literally does not matter." She reaches across him to ring the doorbell. With the swiftness with which her mother answers, Michelle suspects that she had been waiting just on the other side waiting for them to ring the bell. Probably trying to listen to what they were saying. "Hey Momma." She pulls her in for a hug, letting her mother get a good look at a terrified Owen before she begins her test. "This is Owen." She introduces them, and Owen holds out the flowers. 

"Well these are beautiful Owen, thank you." Theresa takes the bunch. "It's nice to meet you, come on in, both of you."

"We were gonna bring wine, but we're not drinking. And Owen has a great eye for flowers." Michelle starts, following her mother to the kitchen. 

"My Grandma used to make a point of always having fresh flowers in the house," he continues for her. "She thought it was important."

Owen used to love seeing what new colours would adorn his grandmother's countertops every week. Eventually, she planned her trips to the florist so he could come with her to help her pick them out. It's how he became so interested in decor. 

"That's really sweet." Theresa thanks him again, grabbing an empty vase from the bookshelf in the dining room. She sets it in front of Michelle before going back to the stove. "Dinner shouldn't take long, can I get you kids anything to drink?" 

Michelle flushes, grabbing the scissors from the drawer. "Momma come on." 

"Just water, please." Owen answers, his earlier nerves replaced by amusement. At fifty two it's a long time since he was called a 'kid'. He and Michelle share a silent chuckle while she arranges the flowers.

"So you don't drink Owen?" Theresa asks over her shoulder, stirring her pot.

"Normally I would, but my doctor isn't best pleased with me." Trust Owen to joke about everything. "Not supposed to drink when I'm getting chemo." That causes Theresa to turn around fully.

"You're getting chemotherapy?" Somehow it seems a more polite question than 'you have cancer?' He just nods in response, glancing down to his hands. He catches Theresa watchg Michelle, who seems to be having some kind of conversation with her mother, without saying a goddamn word. Whatever Michelle isn't saying is satisfactory, and Theresa turns back to her pot. "Well I don't drink soda or anything, so I really don't have anything to give you other than that water." 

"Did you get the yard cleared up Mom?" Michelle changes the subject. "Did Peter's boy, what's his name? Um.. Michael. You said he'd come over and clear everything for you."

"He's been in school all week, but he's got most of it done, he's coming over again tomorrow to get the rest of it." Theresa starts grabbing serving dishes, piling them with sauces and sides. "Michelle will you start carrying these sweetie?" Michelle has finally shirked her leather jacket, and Owen can't stop staring while she moves, her light floral dress swaying slightly as she walks. He's seen her in this dress before at the Honky Tonk. Definitely noticed it before. But he's never watched her move in it. And he needs more water, or a distraction. 

He moves to lift the potatoes. "I got it." He winks at Michelle, causing her brain to short circuit before she remembers that he's supposed to do that all the time. 

"Thanks babe." She lifts the sauce and follows him to the table. His face is flushed. 

"Okay guys. Chicken's ready." Theresa pulls the dish out of the oven, carrying it directly to the table herself. She positions herself at the head of the table, leaving Owen and Michelle opposite each other on either side. 

She gives them some time to settle and start eating before she starts her questioning. "So you two work together? What's that like? It doesn't make things awkward does it?" 

"No mom, it doesn't." Michelle assures her.  _ But tonight probably will.  _ "We make a good team actually."

"Absolutely no need to worry," Owen adds. "Captain Blake here really made it clear right off the bat who's in charge." He sips his water, challenging her over the rim of his glass. 

"I had to,  _ Captain Strand  _ didn't read the manual." She takes a bite of her chicken. It's almost like a firehouse joke, their power play on that first call. 

"So how did you go from coworkers to dating?" Theresa asks. 

They prepared a script for this. "She challenged me to a line dance my first week here." Owen starts with a smile and Michelle coughs on her water.  _ That is not in the script.  _ "Challenged me, in front of the whole team. Now I can't back down from a challenge, and the respect of my team was on the line. So I line danced, badly. But I still felt like I won. And I was hooked." She's chuckling into her napkin now, it hadn't been as big a deal as he was making it out to be, but she had enjoyed putting him in his place at the beginning.

"It wasn't that bad." She assures him. "Really Momma, a little too New York, but it wasn't that bad." She's acting like his line dancing is something that might reflect on her family, and the thought makes his cheeks burn, probably as hot as hers are, judging from their colour.

"You move to Texas and fall for the first person who asks you to line dance?" Theresa doesn't seem suspicious, she just seems like she thinks that maybe Owen is easily swayed. 

Owen looks across the table directly at Michelle. "Pretty much yeah."  _ Damn he's good at this.  _

"But that was months ago, Michelle said you've only been together a few weeks." 

Owen seems to have a better idea of where he's going with this deviation, so she urges him to continue. "It just took me a while, your daughter can be very intimidating." He chuckles.

"I am not intimidating!"

"Yeah you are." They both answer. Her mother and her  _ fake  _ boyfriend are ganging up on her. 

"Only sometimes, don't worry." Owen assures her. 

He keeps on script for the rest of the night, allowing Michelle to jump in with the additions they had agreed upon. He's absolutely perfect, and her mother lets him know that. "I have to admit Owen, I was worried about you, I'm sure you understand." He locks eyes with Michelle for just a moment. "But I can see now that I had absolutely nothing to worry about."

"Thank you ma'am." He takes a sip of water. "I'm glad you feel that way."

Eventually, after they have finished eating, he excuses himself for the bathroom. "Where on earth did you get him Michelle?" Her mother laughs.

"Momma?"

"He's perfect!" She stands to gather the empty plates. "And absolutely smitten with you. I have to say, I really like him."

_ Smitten?  _

He's a good actor, she'll give him that. "So do I."

"It's good to see you so happy darling." She lifts a hand to pat Michelle's cheek, and Michelle's stomach turns in knots. 

"Thanks Momma." She starts to laugh when her mother starts to plate up dessert. She knows that Owen won't want it, but will eat it anyway, just because he doesn't want to offend her mother. "He makes me really happy."

He slips back into the kitchen, and as calmly as breathing, slips an arm around her waist. "Who makes you really happy?" He whispers with a wink. She guesses he knows her mother would hear him, but she doesn't want to answer properly. So she kisses him on the cheek instead. 

"Are you ready for dessert Owen?" Theresa asks, and Michelle can see him struggling to agree, which forces her to stifle a giggle.

"Absolutely." He grins eventually, accepting the plate Theresa hands him, and taking it to the table. They stay for at least another hour, with Owen laughing along to every embarrassing story Theresa comes out with, and Michelle trying to sink into her chair ever so slowly until she can somehow disappear. 

"Did she tell you about falling off the horse?"

"Momma!"

"She did actually, I understand I'm quite lucky in that regard." He winks at her.  _ Would you stop that?  _ Her mother's smile dims slightly, the memory of her daughter twisting in her chest. She gives Michelle a watery smile, something, pride, Michelle thinks, twitching at her eyes. "We've all fallen off horse haven't we? Most of us just don't have a badass scar to prove it."

"I wouldn't call it badass." Michelle protests. "I can't wear shorts because of it."

"Only because you say you can't." He counters. Her mother quirks her eyebrows in agreement. 

"You two are ganging up on me!"

They don't deny it. "I just don't think it's as big a deal as you do." Owen supplies. 

"Well I am going to the bathroom, feel free to make fun of me while I'm gone." She dabs her lip with a napkin, standing from the table.

Owen watches her as she leaves the room. "I won't bite now that she's gone." Theresa jokes, snapping Owen out of his trance. "You're staring." She explains. "You're not afraid of me are you?"

"I'm terrified, actually." Owen jokes, taking a sip of water. "She practically had to drag me through the door."

"You really have nothing to worry about Owen." She assures him. "I like you, she's happier than I have seen her in a very long time. You're good for her." 

"I'm glad you think so."

Xxx

"That actually went really well, thank you." They settle into her Jeep an hour later. 

"Yeah it did." He smiles at her, before breaking away and staring straight ahead.  _ Come on man.  _ "Next time will probably be even better." He says it casually, even though his stomach is doing somersaults right now.

"Next time?" She questions, fixing him with a stare that burns into the side of his face.

"When we do it properly." He explains.

"I don't understand."  _ How could she possibly not understand.  _

"I am going to kiss you now, just so you know." He turns to face her. "You can stop me if I'm wrong about this." He has to reach over to touch her face, and she allows him to bring her to the middle.

"I'm not going to stop you." And then her breath leaves her lungs and they're on fire. His hand is in her hair as she scratches her nails on his scalp. She feels as though she might never breathe again, might never have to, if she can just keep doing this. He pulls away slowly, as if he can't bear to be any further apart. It occurs to her, when she opens her eyes, that she's making out with a boy in a car outside her childhood home like a goddamn teenager. And her mother is probably watching them like she used to back then. "We should get out of here, Momma is watching."

"Okay." He's in a daze, hasn't moved since he pulled away, and he stays in that position until she starts the Jeep up. Eventually, they pull into his driveway and it's time to break the silence. "I'd ask you to come in," he starts. "But TK is home."  _ And that is not something he wants when having this conversation.  _

She only nods in response, her eyes flickering around his face. 

"I didn't want to lie." He starts. "To your mom. I didn't want to make up some story, so that I'd never get to tell the real one in front of her." He reaches out to touch her face again. "I want this to be a story to tell." And he kisses her again, softly this time. Soft enough to send her brain reeling, and have her grasping at the nape of his neck.

"You didn't tell a lie all night." She realises. Everything he said about being hooked on her from the beginning was true. "That's why you were so worried about her liking you." She grins, giggling slightly as he grimaces. "That is very sweet."

"If she didn't like me I didn't have a chance."

"I think you would have." She admits. "I think you would have had a very good chance." 

He kisses her again, quickly. "I gotta get inside, TK will be wondering what's going on." It's very teenage sneaking around, and Michelle would be lying if she said it didn't give her a thrill. 

"Yeah you should. I'll see you tomorrow." She winks before he lets himself out of the Jeep, and watches as he sneaks in the front door. 

  
  



End file.
